Archive for the ‘Bobbi-Kar’ tag

We’ve had a variety of independent dealership photos and memorabilia come through our inboxes lately, starting with this 1933 publicity photo that Pierce-Arrow Society member Steve Rossi sent in to The Arrow, the society’s newsletter. The photo depicts a vintage Pierce Stanhope face-to-face with a contemporary four-door sedan in front of the Johnston Pierce-Arrow showroom in Philadelphia. Roger Sherman, the editor of The Arrow, said he believes the showroom was located at 1515 North Broad Street. The odd-numbered side of the street seems to be under construction, though a few similar art deco-ish buildings still stand on the even-numbered side of the street.

BTW, Roger forwarded us several other Pierce showroom addresses, which we’ll investigate in an upcoming blog post.

Moving on to another of the three Ps, David Bush left a comment in our Lost Packard Dealerships post letting us know that the Gene Meador Packard building still stands at 1123 North Main in San Antonio, Texas. It’s apparently now a multi-use office building, with a couple health-care offices, a management company and a staffing company.

Blog reader Mikel Smithson was recently going through his stuff and came across the dealer tag that was on his 1972 Gremlin, purchased new from Creegan AMC in North Wales, Pennsylvania. The 1983 AMC dealer list doesn’t show a Creegan or a dealership in North Wales. Havekost’s Nash dealership listing does show a Dodson’s in North Wales, located at Walnut and Center streets. No idea if Dodson’s was connected with Creegan; likely not.

Finally, Kit Foster sent us a scan of the 1947 Winsted, Connecticut, phone book. Vintage phone books are a great way to research old dealerships, and Kit found an ad for West Side Motors, an authorized Bobbi-Kar dealer. As you’ll recall from a previous SIA Flashback, Bobbi-Kar eventually became Keller, and there were about 800 Bobbi-Kar dealers signed up. “Does anyone else have any evidence of a Bobbi-Kar dealer?” Kit asks. As for West Side Motors, its location at 922 Main Street in Winsted now seems to be the site of a funeral home.

More than a few companies attempted to enter the post-war automobile seller’s market, and many of those simultaneously saw the need for a small car. Crosley, of course, succeeded in this venture, as did King Midget – for a while – and others, including Davis and Playboy, met with quick blows for grasping beyond their reach. But the Bobbi-Kar/Keller actually stood a chance, one that surpassed a criminal record, a cross-country move and SEC investigation. Only a cruel plug-pulling by fate, as Ken Gross and Rich Taylor described it in SIA #30, September-October 1975, could derail the Keller from success.